Means for automatically opening mine-doors.



A. M. m. 0. HOPPER. MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPENING MINE DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 5,1917.

' Patented Oct. 9, 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

mnmtoxj HWW'HOPPERL JO HoPPEz A. M. 84 J. 0. HOPPER. MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPENING MINE DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 5, 1911f Patented Oct. 9,1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 it uvemtoig F4 .M. HOPPER JO HOPPE anyone ALBERT M. HOPPER AN D JAMES 0. HOPPER, OF PITTSBURG, KANSAS.

Y v iiNrTE stares tartar orrron;

MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPENING MINE-DOORS.

To all whom it may concern:

' Beit known that we, ALBERT M. HOPPER and J AMns O. HOPPER, citizens of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county .of Crawford and State of Kansas, have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Automatically Opening Mine-Doors, of which the following isa specification, reference being hadto the accompanying'drawin s. his invention re ates to means for'operating mine doors, and particularly to means of this character designed to be automatically operated by an a proaching car.

The general object of t e invention is to provide a very simple and effective apparatus to this end, so'constructed that the doors will be shifted tofan open position by the first car of thetrain' and then held open by succeeding cars, the door automatically closing as soon asthe train has passed.

I further object is to provide oppositely disposed Weights on the operating shaft which will counterbalance each other, the weight arms, h 0Wever, being 'loosely connected to the shaft to prevent contact with the ground from breaking the arms.

A further object is to means forztransmitting provide very simple the motion ofthe operating shafts to the doors, and in this connection to provide means for cushioning the shock incident to the striking of the actuating dog b a car. I

A further 0 jectis to provide means whereby the doorsmay be independently opened and closed, without actuating" or shifting the automatic mechanism.

. Other objects will appear in the course of the following descri tio'n. I a V H My invention is 'iIustr'ated in the accomp'anying drawings, wherein top plan view of our invention, the door being shown in section; I Fig.2 isa longitudinal sectional view of the -constri ietion illustrated in Fig. l;

Fig. 3 isa perspective view of one of'the V Figure 1 is a doors in its open position; I M

Fig.4 isa perspective view of one ofthe Fig; 5 is .a fragmentary sectional view through the shaft 14 andthe rod 48;

r Fig. 6 is a like view to 5, but show ing' the connection of the arm .49 to the A, I) 1 i two-sections, this connecting rodcrosemg- Specification of Letters Patent.

I will hereafter door is a rock shaft suitable bearings carried by the yokes19,

desired length. Mounted adjacent plate '26 sp'onding door.

- connection of the the rear corner of the first door. These doors are connected to'the [door frame by the hinges 12, which may be of any suitable construction. the doors,"when closed, stand at 60 with relation to each other. The door frame extends across the rails 13, which rails are supported on ties, as usual. v

Disposed in advance of the'doors' is a shaft 14, extending beneath the rails, this shaft being supported in brackets 15 carried on yokes 16 mounted upon the adjacent ties. The shaft 14 at its'inner end is with an upwardly extending arm '1 which Ordinarily mally extending upward and slightly away from the door.

Disposed adjacent the 18, which is mounted in the shaft being disposed below the rails'13 and being provided with an upwardly extending arm 20 and is connected th'eretoby a connecting rod 21, pivoted tojthe' ends of the arms; This connecting rod is about PatentedOct. e, 1917., Application filed July 5, 1917. serial m5. 173,309. T

rovided an angle of w term a dog, this arm northirty feet in length or may be of any other upon the shaft 14 is the downwardly and forwardly extending arm 22, from which extends a'link23,-which is slidingl 24 formed upon an operating rod 25'.

Attached to, the bottom of each door 11, the hinged portion thereof, is a disposed horizontally and extending inward toward the track, but below 'the yengaged with an elongated loop level of'the same, this plate having an up i wardly extending flange 27, which is bolted orotherwise attached to the door. Therod 25 is connected to the plate 26 on the corre- The plate 26 is approximately triangular. connected to one corner of the plate, as at 28, and transversely opposite to thehinged door. At'gthe forward corner of this plate 14 is pivotallyconnected The rod 25 is pivotally' a transversely extending rod 29, formed in' two sections, this rod being connected to the rear corner of the opposite plate26; From named p1ate'26 extends a connecting rod v3O, also formed in the connecting rod 29 and being connected to the forward corner of the second named plate 26, the middle portion of'the connecting rod 30 being downwardly bent,'as at 31', to pass beneath the rod 29. V

As before stated, each of the rods 29 and 30 is formed in two sections.

sect-ion extends through these lug. Coiled springs 33 resist longitudinal movement of the sections upon each other and cushions the doors when. they are opened by the car striking the dog 17 of the corresponding dog on the sides of the doors, as will be later explained. The shaft 14 projects on the lefthand and disposed on the rear s de of the doors is .a corresponding shaft 34, which is mounted in yokes 35 carriedby the ties, this shaft being provided with the upwardly projecting arm 36 and pivotally connected to this arm 36 is a longitudinally extending rod 37 corresponding to the rod31, which in turn is connected to an arm 38 mounted upon a rock shaft 39 and corresponding to the rock shaft 18 heretofore described.

Extending downward from this shaft 34 is an arm 40 and pivotally connected to this arm is a longitudinally extending rod 41, which at one end engages, with a-lever 42 pivotally mounted upon a longitudinal supnally extending provided with porting tie 43 and having a pin 44'at its opposite end which engagesin the longitudiloop 45 formed upon the end of a rod 46, which corresponds to the rod 25 and is pivotally connected to .the

. plate 26*. A spring 47 urges the rod 46 in a a direction to hold both doors 11 closed so that the pin 44. is disposed at the forward end of the loop 45.

Mounted upon the rock shaft are the oppositely extending arms 48and 49, each of which carry adjustable weights 50. The arms are of the same lengthand the weights balance each other. Preferably there is a certain relative movement of the shaft 14 and the. arms 48 and 49, this being accomplished by forming a groove 51 on theinner face of the armsurrounding the shaft, this groove extending forward and downward and providing a pin 52 on the shaft which engages in this .groove.v The arm 49 is also a corresponding groove 51 which is disposed oppositely to thegroove 51 and the shaft is provided with a pin 52 which en ages in this groove. Thus when the dog 1? is struck and shifted in a clockwise direction by the first car of atrain, the The arm 49 will be when the weight strikes the ground, as it will almost immediately, the arm 49bec omes inactive. After the train has passed the rod 21, however, thewarm 48 carries the shaft 14 back to its normal position until .it is counterbalanced by the liftdepressed but counterclockwise stated,

"Each of these sections is provided with upwardly extend- 411 lug 32, while the other .the arm 48 strikes the ground, it will stop side of the track the dog ing of the arm 49 when the rotation of the shaft will stop. This construction prevents thetoo great rotation of the shaft in a direction. As before the dog .17 extends upward and away from the doors 11 and if any heavy piece of rock or ore shouldfall upon this dog 17 or upon the rod 21, the shaft 14 will rotate in a counterclockwise direction, but as soon as the shaft will continue lifting As soon as the rock has rolled 17, the arm 49 will bring the rotating but the arm 49. oif of the dog shaft back to 1ts normal position again.

arms 53 and 54 havingweights 55 andthe arms are connected to the shaft 34 .in the same manner as are the arms 48 vand 49 and to the same end. 1. a

It will be seen that the doors may be manually opened without rotating the shafts 14 99 or 34 because of the loose connection be; tween the link 23 and the loop 24 and between the lever 42 and the loop 45. I

The operation of this invention will be obvious and is as follows A train advancing toward the doors 11 will strike the dog 17 and shift the dogover, rotatingthe shaft 14 inv a clockwise-direction. and through; therod 35 and the plates 26 and 26 opening the .doors. Thedoors will be'held 00 open by the. engagement of the several cars, of the trainwith the rod 21 until thelast parts to their initial positionready for-the v next train. The train coming from the :opposite direction will, of course, firstioperate 36 which will shift thedoors to an open position and the cars engagingwith 11 the rod 37 will hold the doors open until the last car has passed,'whereupon the doors will be closed by: the spring47. The'rotation of the shaft 34 will beresisted-by the counter-weighted arm'54 and this counter- 11:

weight will act to return the shaft 34 to its initial position ready for another operation. While we have illustrated a formof our invention which we'believe to bethoroughly practical, yetit isobvious that many minor 12' modifications may bemade, without;departing from the spirit of the invention. f

' Having described our invention, what we' cla1m,1s I p 1. The combinatlon wlth a pairofhinged 12 .mine doors, of car actuated door operating means including rock shaftsdisposed on opposite sides of the doors; and 'having'each an upwardly extending car engagin g dog and having each a downwardly extending 13 arm, members attached to each door and extendlng therefrom, rods operatively connecting the downwardly extending arms of each rock shaft to a corresponding member, a pair of crossed rods connecting said members, each of said cross bars being formed in two sections having sliding engagement with each other, and a spring resisting sliding movement of the rods.

2. The combination with a pair of hinged mine doors opening in the same direction, of car actuated door operating means including rock shafts disposed on opposite sides of the doors and each having a car engaging dog and a radially extending arm, members attached to each door and extending inward therefrom, rods operatively connecting the radially extending arms of each rock shaft to a corresponding member, and a pair of cross rods connecting said members, each of said rods being formed in two sections, one of said sections having a pair of perforated lugs, the other section extending through said perforations and having a stop disposed between the lugs, and springs dis posed on each side of the stop and between said stop and the lugs.

3. The combination with a pair of hinged mine doors opening in the same direction, of car actuated door operating means, including rock shafts disposed on opposite. sides of the doors and each having a car engaging dog and each having a radially extending arm, members attached to each door and extending inward therefrom, rods operatively connecting the radially extending arms of each rock shaft to a corresponding member, a pair of crossed rods connecting said members, each of said rods being formed in two sections yieldingly "resisting sliding movement of the sections upon each other.

4. The combination with a pair of hinged mine doors, of car actuated door operating means including rock shafts disposed on opposite sides of the doors and having each an upwardly extending car engaging dog and having each a downwardly extending arm, members attached to each door and extending inward therefrom, rods operatively connecting the downwardly extending arms of each rock shaft to a corresponding member, a pair of crossed rods connecting said members, means for returning said rock shafts to a normal position with the dogs extending upward and toward the doors, and comprising oppositely disposed weighted arms on each rock shaft, each of said arms being engaged by the rock shaft upon a movement of the rock shaft in one direction, the rock shaft having a movement independent of said arms upon a movement in the opposite direction.

5. The combination with a pair of hinged mine doors, of car actuated door operating means including rock shafts disposed on opposite sides of the doors and having each an upwardly extending car engaging dog and having each a downwardly extending arm, members attached to each door and extending inward therefrom, rods operatively connecting the downwardly extending arms of each rock shaft to a corresponding member, a pair of crossed rods connecting said members, means for returning said rock shafts to a normal position with the dogs extending upward and toward the doors and comprising oppositely disposed weighted arms on each rock shaft, each of said arms at its inner end surrounding the shaft and being loosely mounted thereon, each arm being formed with a circumferentially extending recess, and pins on the shaft extending into said recesses.

6. The combination with a track, a door frame extending across the track and a pair of doors hinged to said frame, of means for operating the doors including transversely extending rock shafts mounted below the track on each side of the doors, each of said rock shafts having an upwardly extending car actuated dog and a downwardly extending arm, oppositely disposed weighted arms mounted upon each rock shaft, plates attached to the lower ends of the doors and having inwardly projecting portions, oppositely extending rods connected one to each plate and having elongated loops at their other ends, a link connecting the downwardly extending arm of one rock shaft to the corresponding loop and having sliding engagement with said loop, a connecting rod extending from the other door and formed with an elongated loop, a lever having a pin extending into said loop, a rod connecting,

ALBERT M. HOPPER. JAMES o. HOPPER.

Witnesses i i J. M. CoT'rER, L. E. WINSBY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

